Many ways to modulation...

Okay, so I thought I'd havest your collective knowledge once again in asking for all the ways possible to modulate from one key to another...

Here is a quote from Evelyn Fletcher's book - she was somewhat of a revolutionary music teacher (now deceased and forgotten):

Of 700 music teachers, Mrs. Fletcher-Copp says she found only three who could modulate easily and happily, and they did not pretend to understand what they were doing.

Musical Ability - Evelyn Copp

And to be honest, I am not at all suprised by this either.

I think the easiest way to modulate is with the diminished chord as each chord has multiple keys which you can modulate into. (I think of it as a half-way chord - It is half in and half out of many different keys)

Then there is using tritones... Which I can do, but am not the most capable person of explaining...

So what are the other ways? (Besides simply moving through to the dominant chord: C-> G-> D-> A, etc)

Chris :-)

Surprisingly, single diminished seventh chords are not used all that frequently as a means of modulation. They tend to be used more as passing chords, where you may go through a sequence of diminished sevenths and come out of it on a completely different chord.

Basically, anything that makes good voice-leading sense is an acceptable form of modulation.

Obviously there are the diatonic common chords, and movement around the circle of fifths. You can also use a single common tone, which is most commonly accomplished by dropping all the other notes out, sustaining or repeating the tone long enough to impress it into the listener's mind, and then bringing in a new chord that contains the tone.

Also consider mode mixture as a source of common chords... or even consider completely non-diatonic common chords, such as re-interpreting to or from something like a Neapolitan.

Then there's also the option of enharmonic respelling. Perhaps the most frequently used form is actually a major-minor 7th chord being re-interpreted as a German augmented sixth.

I haven't yet even done a modulation. I'm still just learning the circle of fifths and trying to learn something about the keys.

This is a very interesting topic for me though as I would like to learn some modulation techniques.

I would be very appreciative if anyone could post a few midi examples of modulations with a short description of the procedure.

I have a hard time distinquishing between a mere tonicization (sp?) and a well-established modulation.

So if someone could post some midi examples of modulations that would be great.

I'm currently writing a banjo/guitar duet.

I started it in the key of G.

I'd like to do some modulations into some other keys, I'm thinking D, or A, or maybe even C. I'd like to say in a major mode for this piece because it's quite bright and lively.

I've never modulated before.

Can someone give me some examples of modulating from G in to A, D, or C and back again?

If you could post a midi examples of some simple modulations it would be great!

I'd particularly like methods that "jump" into the next key rather quickly. Maybe by pivoting or using a diminished chord or tritone dissonance.

You can also use a single common tone, which is most commonly accomplished by dropping all the other notes out, sustaining or repeating the tone long enough to impress it into the listener's mind, and then bringing in a new chord that contains the tone.

That sounds like "pivoting". I've learned about this in lectures but it's all theory to me. I'm the kind of person who needs to actually see a practical example and actually do one before it really sinks in.

I'm writing this plucked string duet and I can tell it needs to go somewhere other than just changing rhythm and melody. It's begging for a modulation!

I just don't know how to pull one off successfully.

I'm in the key of G right now using various common chord progressions in that key. In fact, right now the piece is hanging on the dominant D-chord just begging to go somewhere else other than back to G.

I've uploaded a midi, mp3 and PDF of this unfinished piece. (It's actually just being started) Even the mp3 is only 400 KB in size.

Edited to insert the link!

Repikulous

I hope this isn't a thread highjack.

I'm asking about modulation help in keeping with the topic, I'm not looking for comments on my piece. So I felt this was keeping in line with the thread topic.

Please post any modulation suggestions for eveyone to see.

The difficulty in modulation is NOT how to get to a key, but how to establish it.

Chromatic

The easiest example from G to A:

G, E7, A! There you are!

But if you try it, you will feel the intense need to go

G, E7, A, D7, G. Whoops, back to G! The A will feel like a V/V chord, and not a proper new tonality.

What needs to be done is to keep at A, with something that does not really exist in G. For example if you go (lame but as an example): G, E7, A, E7, A, E7, A, E7, A, the poor listener will know that you will stick to A. (extremely lame but try it).

G from A has 2 sharps difference. The C and the G. Use these to show that you are NO longer in G.

Diatonic

The other idea is to take a chord that exists in both tonalities and use it like a blackjack. In G, the II chord is Aminor. Why not go to A minor scale then? You have immediately the A minor chord there, so all you need is a cadenza of some sort, like G, Am, Dm (there goes the G feeling, since the F# is missing, and there is no tritone there (F#-C), A (with E on the bass), E7, Am. Done!

But this won't get you very far really.

Same as chromatic they can go up to one place, and after a while you get tired of those, since you hear all these other stuff that go on...

different name, same chord

This is something interesting really.

Say for example that you are in Bbm. All is fine, you have tons of flats to play with. But you want to take it elsewhere. So instead of naming it Bbm, you name it A#m. Same chord, different name. But now, everything is different! Youi just sumped tons of tonalities, to the other end of the spectrum.

Other

You are in G, right?

What about keeping 1 note/pitch intact and moving the rest? Where can this get you?

In G major chord you get, G, B and D.

How many chord you know with G in them? Anywhere? Lots. You get C and Cm, Em, Eb, Gm, not counting 7,9 and dim chords right?

Same with B, how many chords? Bm, B, G#, E, Em, etc

Alongside D the same thing goes on.

Take them suddently there and you get a very nice feeling, a little non classical, but it all depends, right?

Try playing G, G#m, Ebm, D, F#, Bbm, etc... Take it anywhere you want really.

This goes into the modal territory of course, so it might get some used to, but it rocks I can tell you that!

Hope it helps, and sorry that I don't have time for midi, or finale files right now...

nikolas, I had never thought of doing what you mentioned in the last part of your post. Seriously awesome new sounds. Very sexy.

*wanders off to play piano, mind wide open and wanting more of these sexy chord progressions*

Cool, Mark. Glad you like it!

Keep in mind my spelling in chords. I think thas, as most people do, when writing chords like that, with letters, or oraly, I tend to go to the name of the chords with the less accidentals. So I would never say A#m, but Bbm instead, because I'm SO used to Bb, which only has Bb and Eb. Same with Eb, On the other hand F# comes moch more preferable to my ears than Gb, probably for the reason that F#m has 3 accidentals while Gbm, won't even count how many, plus the double ones... (Bbb)

BTW, Mark.

Try the following as well.

think of 2 chords that have nothing in common. Absolutely nothing!

Say if your first chord is G. Let's see which chords have NOTHING in common.

C, no

C#, yes

D, no

Eb, no, Ebm, maybe if G is minor or major

E, no

F, yes

F#, if G is minor, then no, else yes

G#m, no, G# yes

A, yes

Bb, no with G minor, yes with G

B, no with G yes with G minor

and so on. Do your own tests. Different feelings.

The same pitch idea, connect chords usually in the connection of a third, which is very pleasent to the ear. On the other hand the nothing in common is much more difficult to set-up, listen to pleasently and establish better.

Yeah, I know what you mean, I much prefer enharmonic relationships to massive amounts of accidentals :thumbsup:

Thanks nikolas, you've offered a whole candy store of ideas. I'll have to experiment with these.

I've never methodically modulated before.

One thing I was thinking was to just insert a few blank measure, then pick the piece back up starting in, say the key of A, and then see if I can figure out how to sew the two pieces back together again.

I know that's a pretty lame way to do it. But I'm pretty good at sewing things together so that would be my first thought.

I'll post the modulation when I've accomplished it. But it may be a while because I don't have time to work on the piece right now.

Still open to more suggetions though, or even better yet, actual examples of modulations in action in either midi or pdf format.

Uh, one technique I like to move a minor key a minor third is to use dominant chords rather than diminished chords (even though they're used similarly). In D minor, say, the V7 chord is A7 (from harmonic minor). From natural minor, though, is the bVII7 (C7). Different flavors of minor, but both are minor. The A7 is the V7 of D minor but the bVII7 of B minor, and the C7 is the bVII7 of D minor but the V7 of F minor. I doubt this would be considered new or original in any way, but for somebody like me who isn't constantly analyzing classical pieces, it seems pretty cool. (2:03)

Also, just as people use the diminished tetrad to move in minor thirds due to the fact that it is symmetrical in that interval, the augmented triad can be used in the same way. B+ fits in C minor, but it also fits in E minor and Ab minor, and can be used to switch between these keys.

Another way is to stop the music, play something atonal for an extended period of time, and then start up again in a new key. Brilliant strategy, if you ask me.

You could also use a single dominant 7 chord. In C, G7 is the dominant chord, and it has the B-F tritone. In Gb, Db7 is the dominant chord, and it has the F-Cb tritone, which can be respelled as F-B. Therefore a G7 or Db7 can be used to move between C and Gb. (1:37)

You could also, uh, just modulate. Play a phrase in C, and then play one in E. It works.

That's all that's coming off the top of my head that hasn't been said already.

Neopolitan sixth chords and augmented sixth chords are also great ways of modulation.

Wikipedia also has great stuff on modulation, and the first two links at the end are also great.

As you were asking for examples, I decided to try out a few of the ideas nikolas mentioned, and came up with this nice little progression:

Here all of the chords share at least one notes with the chords the precede and follow them. I have made the common tones different colours to highlight them: The C major and the Ab Major share the C and the E major and the A minor share an E.

What's interesting here is that we're also using another thing nikolas touched upon; enharmonic common tones. The Ab and the G# (blue) are the same pitched note, so we have the common tone, but they allow us to jump between two seemingly unrelated chords.

Hope this makes sense, if it doesn't just say so, and I'll try and explain more :angry:

Mark :)

This is all great stuff!

I went to the Wiki site. That was a lesson in and of itself. And one of the links at the bottom goes to a page that has quite a few examples displayed graphically along with Midi sound examples.

For the piece I'm working on I'm attracted to "Direct modulation". No preparation or or shared chords or notes or anything. Just, kerplunk, you jump right into the next key and drag your listener's with you. (ha ha)

I'm sure there's a bit more to it than that. But I'm looking for a "plunge" effect. So I'll toy with some different things and see what I come up with.

Whoever started this thread can have it back now. (ha ha)

No, don't give it back yet! Your questions always make me think :)

I think I'm going to have a play around and try and achieve this 'plunge' effect you speak of. I expect it'll need to be fairly distant keys, as if you're in G major and you 'plunge' into Am it'll be close enough to not shock the listener, but far away enough to sound awkward doing it quickly. (I think that makes sense)

Try maybe 'plunging' from D minor to E major, that could be interesting :)

I think I'm going to have a play around and try and achieve this 'plunge' effect you speak of.

I used the term "plunge". They actually call it "Direct modulation"

They have an example on their web page, I think it's the third example down.

Modulation

I don't know if I can pull that off in my piece or not. I don't have time to try right now. I'm cutting firewood outside and I just drop by the computer when I come in for a drink and wipe the sweat from by brow.

The example on there sounded quite crude, I think if it was a more distant key then it would sound more effective. Or maybe that would be better if there were other things changing, instrumentation, tempo, et cetera. It just doesn't work that well as it is in my opinion.

Two other ways, if anyone's interested:

Chromatic Mediant, which I just found out about.

And Chromatic Alteration, which is somewhat like what Nikolas mentioned (I think), and is a good way to go from parallel major/minor to minor/major. The difference is that in Nikolas', the chromaticism is just in one voice, i.e. G-B-D->E-G#-B->A-C-E; G to G# to A.

However, in Chromatic Alteration, two chords are used, one in the old key and one in the new, that are almost the same. The only difference is one is altered by a semitone. For example, from G Minor to G Major, the G Minor chord is G-Bb-D and the G Major chord is G-B-D; exactly the same, only the third of the chord is raised by a half step. Therefore, you can use that to modulate into the new key.

Well, here's an interesting one I found, C to Db. Like this ->

C - Ab - Gb - Db

Bam. You can also go the rest of the way and take that Db straight to Ab. Bam.

I also sometimes go through a brief phase, or episode, of modulation in my random improvistions, which usually involves at first being in a minor key, than getting to the relative major, and modulation from there, like this example:

Dm - Bb - C - F - E - Am

That example is just a frilly way of doing this -> Dm - E - Am

How about modulation with the seventh degree in common with the next chord? Like this ->

C - F#7 - B

The E natural in C major is also in F#7, and F# resolves to B.

The other way, of course is ala Beethoven, where you simply transpose the entire theme immediatley into a different key (same relative difference to the first jump), then yet another, then add the appropriate flats/sharps then introduce the new theme...

LOL That was very crudely written but is basically what he does in a lot of his symphonies lol (pursuming the modulation doesn't jsut occur as a result of the theme anyway)

Chris :-)

I'm going to point out here to a few of you that transposing something directly, with no intervening modulatory passage is NOT modulation - it is the exact lack of it.

Modulation is the moving between keys - just jumping straight into another key is not really modulation.

I'm going to point out here to a few of you that transposing something directly, with no intervening modulatory passage is NOT modulation - it is the exact lack of it. Modulation is the moving between keys - just jumping straight into another key is not really modulation.

With all due respect I think this is somewhat subjective. Since I have learned about the concept of “Direct modulation” I’ve been searching the Internet and finding quite a lot of references to it. Therefore you’d have to point this out to more than just a “few of you”. In fact, from what I can tell direct modulation is quite popular in atonal music especially.

Wikipedia (and quite a few other sources define direct modulation in a similar fashion: They also refer to it by other names, such as “phrase” modulation or “abrupt” modulation.

Phrase (also called direct or abrupt) modulation is a modulation in which one phrase ends with a cadence in the original key, and begins the next phrase in the destination key without any transition material linking the two keys.

Also, according to the following quote the term “modulation” simply refers to changing keys, and doesn’t really imply any methods that might be used to facilitate the process.

Though modulation generally refers to changes of key, any parameter may be modulated, particularly in music of the 20th and 21st century. Metric modulation (known also as tempo modulation) is the most common, while timbral modulation (gradual changes in tone color), and spatial modulation (changing the location from which sound occurs) are also used.

So based on this, you can say that direct modulation is not a very good “method” of modulation, but to claim that it isn’t modulation is to deny the very meaning of the word.

I’m finding countless references to “direct modulation” on the web. So it’s obviously an accepted concept in the musical community.

Here’s an example of Johann Sebastian Bach using direct modulation:

(see last example on the page)

Modulation

So I’m afraid that your feelings on this matter are entirely subjective, and are obviously not shared by the musical community as a whole. The concept of “Direct Modulation” is simply recognized by too many musical sites on the web to be dismissed as an invalid notion that needs to be pointed out to just a “few” people.

Therefore you’d have to point this out to more than just a “few of you”.

A few of you in this thread.

In fact, from what I can tell direct modulation is quite popular in atonal music especially.

The device is very popular, I did not say anything to the contrary. All I said is that it is a misnomer.

AND modulation, which is the moving between two tonal centres, is impossible in atonal music, so I don't quite see what you're saying. Sure, you can take a phrase and transpose it up a minor third, but if you weren't in a key to begin with, and you still aren't in a key now, have you modulated?

Also, according to the following quote the term “modulation” simply refers to changing keys

I'm not going to take wikipedia as my bible on music knowledge now.

Analogy: Caterpillar ------> Chrysalis ------> Butterfly

The "modulation" in this case is the metamorphosis.

Direct modulation: Caterpillar ------> Butterfly

If we look at this on the simplest level, was there any metamorphosis if the caterpillar changed directly into the butterfly? No, there was an instant change.

A lot of this just depends on your take on the words themselves. Of course this direct modulation will be labelled modulation, even if it's not that, because in the end you are in a different key, so what else to call it?

But that doesn't mean any modulation takes place.

But this is really an issue of semantics - I consider modulation the changing from one key to another, and establishing the new tonal area.

You consider modulation (presumably) arriving in a new key, irrespective of how you're there.

My point that I am making is that Direct Modulation is a misnomer. I am not saying it is not used, and I am not saying it does not take you to a new key.

With all due respect I think this is somewhat subjective.

Then why are you forcing your view upon me?

Then why are you forcing your view upon me?

I'm not trying to force anything upon you.

I'm simply saying that if you want to say that direct modulation is not "really" modulation you'll need to point it out to more than just a few people in this thread because it's obviously plastered all over the web.

That was really my only point.

I'm only talking to this thread - I don't go preaching my beliefs over everyone indiscriminately, it just so happened that this thread invited such discussion.

That renders your "only point" useless, given that I'm only talking to the people in this discussion.

Also, don't take the web or wikipedia as gospel.

Daniel,

I think that I might be one of the "few" here in the thread. The point here, is not to provide lessons of classical hamorny, so immediately I extended it. My aim was to broaden the horizons, not to provide classical rules.

Apart from that modulation needs the tonality as well. The minute you temper with that, there can be no "modulation" as a term really. Indeed the term might be incorrect, but I sure hope that nobody took my "advice" as classical rules of classical harmony, cause after a point they are not!